New provost for the new year
Thomas Rosenbaum, the University’s vice president for research
and for Argonne National Laboratory, begins a five-year term as provost
January 1, when former social-sciences dean Richard Saller returns to
teaching. President Zimmer chose Rosenbaum, a physics professor and expert
on quantum mechanics, in part because of his leadership in the University’s
successful bid for Argonne. Rosenbaum has directed the University’s
Materials Research Lab (1991–94) and the James Franck Institute
(1995–2001), and he chairs Argonne’s Science Policy Council.

“ABD” for 55 years
When he received his doctorate at summer convocation, Herbert
Baum, 79, became the oldest person to do so at Chicago. After leaving “all
but dissertation” in 1951 Baum, AM’51, PhD’06, moved
to California, where he helped nationalize the state’s strawberry
market as CEO of Naturipe and chair of the California Strawberry Commission.
Retiring in 1991, Baum turned his experience into The Quest
for the Perfect Strawberry (2005), an analysis of the California
strawberry business. When he wrote to economics professor James Heckman,
hoping the book could serve as his dissertation, Heckman responded, “Please
send copies.” Nobel laureates Heckman, Gary Becker, AM’53,
PhD’55, and Milton Friedman, AM’33, in addition to professor
Roger Myerson, formed his dissertation committee.

... and a new building to match
The University has named five finalists in its competition to
build a proposed 100,000-square-foot arts center south of the Midway.
Competitors include Daniel Libeskind, planner of ground zero; Pritzker
Architecture Prize–winners Hans Hollein of Austria, Fumihiko Maki
of Japan, and Thom Mayne of Santa Monica; and New York–based Tod
Williams and Billie Tsien. A jury will choose an architect for the $100
million center—which will house a performance hall, three black-box
theaters, music practice rooms, and a recording studio—in January
or February.

Religion writing rewarded
Two of three American Academy of Religion book awards went to
Divinity School faculty this year. Jonathan Z. Smith, the Robert O. Anderson
distinguished service professor in the humanities and the Divinity School,
was recognized for Relating Religion: Essays in the Study
of Religion (2004), a collection of essays written over
the past 20 years. Dan Arnold, PhD’02, assistant professor of the
philosophy of religion, was commended for his first book, Buddhists,
Brahmins, and Belief: Epistemology in South Asian Philosophy of Religion (2005).
Berkeley professor Daniel Boyarin also won for Border-Lines:
The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity.

$10 million for cancer research
The Biological Science Division’s “Spark Discovery,
Illuminate Life” campaign, which aims to translate research directly
into improved patient care, announced it will hire new faculty for the
Ben May Institute for Cancer Research, install MRI equipment for the
radiology department, study the migration of cancer cells (metastasis),
and build labs in the Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery—all
with the help of a $10 million gift from the Duchussois family, who in
1994 gave $21 million for the Duchussois Center for Advanced Medicine.

Skills for third-world medicine
The Pritzker School of Medicine’s infectious-disease and
emergency-medicine sections launched a Geographical Medicine Scholars
Program this fall. The 12-month global-health competency curriculum for
residents, fellows, and medical-student trainees includes practice in
South India and covers additional skills needed for clinical or research
activities in international resource-limited settings.

Good business strategy
The Academy of Management, an international association devoted
to studying management and organizations, gave GSB associate professor
Matthew Bothner its 2006 Glueck Best Paper Award for new research in
business policy and strategy. Along with Jeong-han Kang, of Cornell University,
and Wonjea Lee, a Chicago doctoral student, Bothner coauthored “Status
Volatility and Organizational Growth in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry.” The
paper argued that a venture capitalist with highly volatile status was
more likely to have an unfavorable economic outcome.

Chicago crew digs in Turkey
In August the Oriental Institute began a long-term excavation
at the southeastern Turkey site of Zincirli, a flourishing Iron Age city-state
later incorporated into the Assyrian Empire and abandoned in the seventh
century BC. The project, headed by archaeology professor David Schloen,
is expected to yield insights into the Late Bronze–Iron Age transition,
the ethnolinguistic dynamics of regional city-states, and the Assyrian
imperial administration.

Grammar goes digital...
On September 29 the University of Chicago Press unveiled an online
version of the Chicago Manual of Style. Available
at chicagomanualofstyle.org by subscription, the entire editing reference,
in searchable format, joins the Chicago Style Q&A, which addresses
reader’s thorny editorial questions as they arise via e-mail.

... while business follows suit
Graduate School of Business faculty will cease publishing the
84-year-old Journal of Business in November,
citing the increasing specialization of business journals. The publication’s
electronic archive will be available to registered readers of the Chicago
Journals Web site (www.journals.uchicago.edu) in Spring 2007.

Washington comings and goings
In October GSB economics professor Dennis Carlton began a term
as deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis for the U.S.
Department of Justice antitrust division. Meanwhile, after serving three
years as chief economist for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), professor
Raghuram Rajan returned to the GSB this fall. The IMF asked Rajan to
stay for a second three-year term, but University rules don’t permit
such an extended leave.

News with a BSD twist
The Medical and Biological Sciences Alumni Association has launched
two alumni newsletters. The Spring issue of the BSD’s Imprint covered “The
Crisis in Funding,” analyzing the decline in federal dollars for
research and development, while the Pritzker Pulse featured
an interview with Joycelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General during the Clinton
administration and keynote speaker at Pritzker’s 2006 commencement.
Both publications can be found online at bsdalumni.uchicago.edu.

Law students aid immigrant kids
Newly appointed law lecturer Maria Woltjen joined forces with
the Law School’s Mandel Legal Aid Clinic to expand the Immigration
Children’s Advocacy Project, which she founded in 2003. Under Woltjen’s
direction, eight to ten law students serve as advocates to undocumented
youth, most aged 16 or 17, who have been apprehended by authorities.
Participating students must be proficient in Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi,
or Gujarati to help pro-bono lawyers, who often aren’t bilingual.

Carilloneur goes international
University Carilloneur Wylie Crawford, MAT’70, has been
elected president of the World Carillon Foundation. The organization
represents 21 countries, about 600 carillons, and about the same number
of carilloneurs. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Carillon, in Rockefeller
Memorial Chapel, is the second largest in the world.

New faces in ombudsperson office
Second-year SSA doctoral student Sarah Lickfelt stepped up to
serve as the University’s student ombudsperson, replacing Victor
M. Muñiz-Fraticelli, AM’03. First-year history PhD candidate
Mehnaz Choudhury, AM’05, joins her as associate ombudsperson, taking
the place of Kirk Schmink, AB’06. Both positions help resolve student
grievances, particularly when other methods have been unsuccessful.

N. Korea may signal Doomsday
In October, when North Korea announced it had tested a nuclear
weapon, Kennette Benedict, U-High’65, executive director of the
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, said the board would consider moving up
the Doomsday Clock at its November meeting. Then at seven minutes to
midnight, the clock hadn’t moved in four years. Both North Korea’s
and Iran’s nuclear ambitions would factor into the decision to
reset the clock, Benedict said in a statement.

Olympics could boost South Side
If Chicago wins its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Washington
Park would be a cornerstone site, Mayor Richard M. Daley announced in
September. By extension, said U of C’s vice president for community
and government affairs Hank Webber, the events would shine an “extraordinarily
positive” spotlight on the University. Daley’s announcement,
Webber said, “creates an enormous opportunity to jump-start community
development.”

Capital campaign hits $1.6 billion
As of October 6 the Chicago Initiative capital campaign passed
the $1.6 billion mark on its way to raising $2 billion. Funds from the
five-year effort, begun in 2002, go toward endowed chairs, faculty salaries,
undergraduate financial aid, graduate fellowships, and community programs.
The Chicago Initiative is the largest campaign in University history.

Divine java madness
This fall in the Divinity School coffee shop, the gods duked
it out. The coffee shop, Grounds of Being, held a tip-jar–based
Battle of the Gods between proclaimed deities including Jesus, Muhammad,
the Mormon prophet and angel Moroni, Pythagoras, and J. K. Rowling. At
press time four contenders remained: Michael Foucault, John Lennon, Optimus
Prime (a Transformers action figure), and Poseidon.

Argonne adds board members
The U of C has named Deborah Wince-Smith and Mary Fanett Wheeler
to Argonne National Laboratory’s 23-member board of governors.
Wince-Smith is president of the Council on Competitiveness, and Fanett
Wheeler is a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics,
petroleum and geosystems engineering, and the Ernest and Virginia Cockrell
chair of engineering at the University of Texas, Austin.